Legal Challenges to Presidential Policies on the Use of Military Force |
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| Authors: | Barry N Sweet |
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| Institution: | Barry N. Sweet is an assistant professor of political science and legal studies at Greensboro College. He holds a PhD in political science from West Virginia University, and a JD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. His teaching and research interests are American politics, public law, and international relations. |
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| Abstract: | A review of legal challenges to the use of military force, from the Vietnam War era to the Gulf War, demonstrates a judicial unwillingness to constrain presidential policymaking. In most of these cases, the judiciary has ruled the legal challenge nonjusticiable. In the first post-Cold War challenge , Dellums v. Bush, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia issued the equivalent of a declaratory judgment. Arguably, this is the only practical judicial response to the presidential use of force, but it does little more than redirect the policy conflict from the courts to Congress. The rule of law remains a weak reed in efforts to constrain presidential policymaking on the use of military force. |
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